Fan-made localization?

[Nenayar]

I would like to translate this wonderful game to Ukrainian, but it is not possible due to the specifics of the fonts (graphics, not text).

Maybe it will be possible in future?

I'm willing to translate it for free and have a lot of friends to check and improve the localisation :)

[Iguana-on-a-stick]

Looking through my geneforge mutagen files, I see all of the texts and descriptions are stored in plain text files under "scripts", and the images as plain .png files under "graphics."

With my "great" skill at using MS paint and text file editing, I was able to translate the first sentence of the opening crawl as well as some of the labels in the player's inventory.

So it would be possible to create a fan-translation already, I think. It would just be a LOT of work.

And probably easier with some better tools than MS Paint.

[Nenayar]

Well, I can edit graphic elements of course, replacing the words with similar looking text.

But common text could only be edited by special software as far I remember. You would have to create a new image file with another alphabet, then associate English symbols with Cyrillic for example, and then use this special software to input the text.
It's quite long and exhausting process, and the number of English symbols are not enough, so translators have to be creative.

What I asked, is if Jeff would like to increase the popularity (and relevant sales) by adding some comfortable ways to change the game language by making a simple text file replacement mod.

I tried to translate original Geneforge 2 to Ukrainian and it was simple - just open .txt file and replace the text :)

People in my country are very fond of such intellectual games with cool mechanics and exquisite plot, but not everyone knows English well, so I'm sure that Ukrainian and/or Russian localization would make the game even more popular.

And increased sales would allow to invest more in the next game, adding more content/systems.... ah, the dreams :)

[Spiderweb]

We've been asked many times over the 30 years we've been doing this why we don't translate our games to other languages.

1. We're a small company making a niche product, so our overall sales are pretty low by game industry standards.
2. Our games have a LOT of text. A full novel's worth in each one. Most games have less text, so translations are way cheaper. Our games would be very expensive to translate.

Putting those together, as much as we'd like to expand to other languages, we see no way to make it profitable. Sorry!

[Nenayar]

I undestand the complexity of text, but I have already seen some of your games translated into Russian by using software developed for this specific task, so you may underestimate the popularity of your games in Eastern Europe :)

Here is an example translation of Avernum: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=919054914

Also I didn't ask for translation, just to make it possible for others to translate the text files and release as a mod/replacement - it would surely be appreciated by fans.
For example I can translate Ukrainian for free just for fun :)

[Nenayar]

Originally posted by Mike:

I'd be very interested in Jeff's answer to this as well, considering the potential for a significant increase in sales with more easily moddable text. Again, Nenayar didn't ask for a translation, but for the file formats to be adjusted to allow fans to make their own translations. Any hope for this, or would that truly be more trouble than the likely significant benefits would be worth?

I've tried translating original Geneforge 2 and managed to do it easily for the first couple areas, because the font was simple, not in PNG or JPG.

Also there are translations of other Spiderweb games, you can easily google them.
Considering how hard it must have been to make them (including the editing of EXE and DAT files), the popularity of games is sure high enough :)

[Mharr]

A modding system for languages would be great, but that seems like the kind of thing that would need to be written into an engine from the beginning.

There's also the question of cost-effectiveness. We can't be far off having applications that translate all text on a screen automatically and turn based RPGs like this would be the easiest games for that approach.

[Huey]

Originally posted by Spiderweb:

We've been asked many times over the 30 years we've been doing this why we don't translate our games to other languages.

1. We're a small company making a niche product, so our overall sales are pretty low by game industry standards.
2. Our games have a LOT of text. A full novel's worth in each one. Most games have less text, so translations are way cheaper. Our games would be very expensive to translate.

Putting those together, as much as we'd like to expand to other languages, we see no way to make it profitable. Sorry!

I respect that you have been doing this for 30 years, but I think your perspective is outdated. These days translation is cheap and easy, and projects as big as yours manage to translate their games through the passion of fan-translators working together, who understand indie budget constraints. It's a shame because I'd like to play your game but won't unless there's a German version.

[Spiderweb]

Part of the problem is that our engine is based around the English alphabet and the ASCII character set. To adapt our engine to work with any font would be a considerable amount of work. To remove all text from the game engine and into editable files would also be a big job.

Also, you need to realize how enormous a job translating these games is. They have a LOT of text.

It's a beautiful dream, but if I did it I would be honestly surprised if a full quality translation ever saw the light of day.

[Huey]

Originally posted by Spiderweb:

Part of the problem is that our engine is based around the English alphabet and the ASCII character set. To adapt our engine to work with any font would be a considerable amount of work. To remove all text from the game engine and into editable files would also be a big job.

Also, you need to realize how enormous a job translating these games is. They have a LOT of text.

It's a beautiful dream, but if I did it I would be honestly surprised if a full quality translation ever saw the light of day.

I see, ASCII does make things very difficult.